Grammar : Syntax [week nine: the opus project]

Audience. Viewers, onlookers, patrons; crowd, congregation, turnout. Though the creation of an artist or designer reflects mainly on their views and feelings, an audience is sometimes the most important part of a design. An audience or crowd are the people who will view your creation and make their own judgments on them. They will tell you wether they believe it's good or bad. This can sometimes be a good or bad thing. When an audience critiques you as being good, you really have nothing to worry about. It's when somebody doesn't like your work that you have to step back and think. Not everyone will appreciate the things that you do, but it comes to design you can look at criticism as being something to work from or improve on, or you can accept the negativity placed on your work but stand strong by your design. It's your work, what you created, you wouldn't put something out there if you didn't like it. "Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience" (Henry David Thoreau). Design what's in your heart now, don't wait for the audience to be ready. Do it now and ask for forgiveness later.

Drawing was first done in pen - I later revised it by adding splashes of color for interest.

Revisions. Correction, alteration, adaptation, editing. Revision means correcting or altering something done in the past, but it also means taking a second or closer look. You start out with your first idea. It's always something extreme and crazy, it has to be though. When you are given a new project or assignment, you imagine no limitations. You are free think up and dream any wild idea your mind can create. Slowly, your head comes out of the clouds and you revise and alter your ideas into something more produceable. "Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt [revise]. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent" (Nolan Ryan).

Character is shown in the way people design. I like flowers and

colorful frilly stuff so -- thats my design up there for my next studio project.

Character. Personality, nature, disposition, temper, mentality, makeup. The character of a person defines who they are. It allows you to know how they were brought up and raised. This can also explain why some people design the way they do. When a designer creates something thats always playful and energetic you can easily see their character in their design. A design helps you to understand the character of a person. "... let us say every man is an architect of his own character" (George D. Boardman).

The transition above is from the natural objects I chose in the 

first drawing to the design patterns I made in the second.

Transition. Change, passage, move, transformation, conversion, metamorphosis. "The best performance improvement is the transition from the non-working state to the working state" (quotes). In design, a person always starts off with extreme and eccentric ideas, those ideas are then revised into something more produceable and then transitioned into some that you can actually bring to life.

My group followed a datum line to show consistency through our presentation board.

 

Datum. An assumption or premise from which inferences may be drawn. In Suzanne's class this past week, we work on presentation boards that reflected the all of the work we've done this past semester. On those presentation boards we focused a lot on datum lines, or a common line that all of our drawings shared. I found that when using a datum line it really allows your final product to come out clean and smooth.

This week was all about appealing to an audience through the process of design. One must always start with a first draft or idea. That idea is then revised and transitioned into what is more appealing to the audience. However, while working for an audience you must always have your own character in your creations otherwise the project will not be your own at all. Finally to create a successful design you must must follow a datum or guidelines that will again appeal to your audience.